Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-09-08
Will Average 4O-Wheat Acre.
age Greatly Reduced.
PLENTY OF FEED IN EVERY
COUNTY.
Late Corn Doing Well-Grass
and Stock in Good
Condition.

special crop correspondents in as many
different counties in the state. The
intention was to have the reports COM
plete and truthful, and it is believed
that they are so. The letters are in re-
Spouse to questions sent out as follows:
.Weather since June? Chirch bugs
how general in your county, and how
much damage did they effect? Were
they worse than the dry weather? Be
clear and full on this point? Wheat?
Acreage to be seeded? On what kind
of ground? How prepared? Corn?
Condition? How effected by dry
weather and bugs? What p roportions
of an average crop? Grass? Potatoes?
Vegetables? Stock? Feed-will there
be enough to carry you through the
winter?''
A reading of these interesting let
tiers discloses the following general
facts: The season has been peculiar
in several respects. Good corn, poor
corn, and total failure of corn found
in small areas-sometimes on adjoin-
ing farms. Hot winds with peculiar
effects blew on two particular days and
destroyed the fresh corn tassels where
yer it struck them. The stalk grew
right on, but the tassel was dead, and
of course, there are no corn ears in such
fields. In many places the rain was
sufficient to produce a crop, for good
crops have been raised on the same
grounds in certain other years with less
rain than fell there this year, and there
were not bugs enough to do much dam
age, but corn failed there this year. 1t
is the opinion of the farmers In such
localities that the trouble lay in the
drvness of the subsoil Rains were
scattering. Enough rain fell in the
state during the growing season, if it
had been we'll distributed, to produce
average crops but there were dry spots
in at least three fourth of the counties
of the state, in some of which, with the
help of chinch bugs, corn amounts to
little. 1t appears, however, that not a
single county was so completely ignor
ed as to deprive it wholly of farm pro-
ducts. There will be rough feed in
every county sufficient for home use,
and the number that will not have corn
enough is very small indeed. Some
farmers, and some neighborhocds will
have to purchase corn, but they will
not be compelled to go outside Of their
own counties as rule. Taking the
state over, the total quantity of corn
raised will amount to 40 per cent of a
fair crop for the acres planted.
An analysis of the reports show some
special facts of interest. OF the eighty
five counties reporting, twenty-six of
them report one-half crop of corn and
upward; fourteen report one-thlrd of a
crop; thirteen report one-fourth nine
report one-fifth six report rwo-thirds,
and four reports three-fourths. Fifty
one counties report enough corn for
home use; some of them barely enough,
some plenty; some surplus. Fifty
eight counties report stock feed, as hay,
corn fodder, ETC., plenty, many of them
more than enough, and all the rest re-
port feed enough to carry the home
stock through the winter if carefully
saved and judicially fed. There is plenty
of farm produce of all kinds in the state
to supply the home demand, but it will
have to be distributed among thos farm
ers that have not enough Of their own
raising. Forty-slx counties will reduce
the wheat acreage below that of last
year, and eleven counties will increase
it. The other counties will SOW about
the same acreage. A large majority of
the correspondents believe the chinch
bugs did more damage to crops than
was done by dry and spotted weather.
Secretary Sims agrees with Professor
Snow in concluding that Kansas weather
runs in cycles. In a recent report he